Empty Campgrounds + Fall Leaves

Ahhh…the joys of fall camping. Empty campgrounds, fall colors, and crisp, cool air. What’s not to love? We stayed at two different campgrounds last week. Both were nearly empty and filled with some really great fall color. The first was a small county park in a rural part of southern Kentucky. We arrived at Pulaski County Park in the late afternoon on Sunday after our tour at Mammoth Cave. It was completely empty and the office was closed. Their website said they were open until the end of October so we called the listed number and the woman who answered said she had to step out and to pick a site and come pay in the morning. So we chose one with a water view and settled in.

All alone at Pulaski Country Park

The campground might have been empty when we arrived, but judging by the amount of trash strewn around the sites (including food items like a whole cantaloupe and a half burnt pizza, as well as several small door mats, piles of cigarette butts, and wrappers of every kind), this place must have seen some serious action over the weekend. Not sure why all this trash was left around. I’d like to give them the benefit of the doubt and say that since they were closing for the season in a week there was simply no one to pick it up, but after walking around and seeing trash everywhere — some that had clearly been there for months or years — we concluded that this was just a really trashy campground. Such a shame.

You can’t see it, but there’s a TON of trash at this campground

Anyway…it started raining soon after we settled in and continued raining for the next two days. Which meant no kayaking, no hiking, and no enjoying their disc golf course. Instead we stayed inside working, cooking and sewing. I recently got a Crock Pot and decided to try it out with some beer braised tacos and a hearty soup. I also got a start on cutting the pieces for the new quilt I’m making for our bedroom. Judging by the amount of time it took me to cut out just a few pieces this is going to be a long-term project.

Crock Pot magic & the beginning of our new quilt

The rain stopped and the sun came out just as we were getting ready to leave on Wednesday afternoon.

Leaf collection

It was a quick 2 hour drive to our next destination, Standing Stone State Park in Tennessee. Once again we found an empty campground. Minus the trash this time.

Out lovely site at Standing Stone State Park

It was a peaceful three day stay with no one else around until Friday night when a handful of other campers arrived. Best of all, it didn’t rain once (you know it’s been raining a lot when I get exited about 3 dry days in a row) and we had plenty of time to explore the campground and park. Most of the sites here are pretty good size, but the campground is built on a hill with skinny roads, tight turns and lots of trees making it hard to get around with an RV. I’m actually surprised that the website says it can accommodate RVs up to 45′ long. You’re gonna need some serious skills and a lot of luck to get around here with a rig that size.

Really nice sites here, but the layout is more suited for smaller RVs

The park has lots to offer in addition to the campground. There are cabins for rent, a large conference room, a giant pool (closed for the season), a tennis and basketball court, and some other things that I’m probably forgetting.

A few of the rental cabins

They also have an arena where the National Rolley Hole Marble Championship is held every September. Here’s the description from the park’s website:

This traditional marbles contest draws some of the country’s best players to a tournament where players match wit and skills with special flint spheres on a smooth dirt surface. The festival includes kids’ games, marble making, swap meet, tournament play, demonstrations, music and food.

If you want to see some riveting live action marbling I recommend you scroll to the bottom of the park website and watch the YouTube video.

Where the magic happens

We also made it down to the very small lake for a small hike and kayak on two separate occasions.

Paddle boat anyone?

Orange…

and yellow

Paddling the small lake

The dam

So far so good Tennessee. Can’t wait to visit more of your state parks over the next few weeks.

The Kayaks we have are Wilderness Systems Tsunamis. Here are two posts I wrote about them:http://www.watsonswander.com/2015/we-got-kayaks/http://www.watsonswander.com/2015/kayak-gear/
I would say that the kind of kayaks you get really depends on how you plan to use them. We got these on the east coast and spent a lot of time paddling in the ocean where a larger, sturdier boat like this is a huge advantage. If you’re only planning to kayak in small lakes with no waves you might want something smaller and lighter. We also hope to do some overnight trips with them so the large storage capacity was a factor. So far they have been an excellent purchase and we use them once a week on average.

Looks like the parks are all closing just after you pass through! What a trip it must be to stay in an empty park! Too bad about the trashy park…we noticed a ton of trash throughout Texas, parks and everywhere else…they need some kind of campaign to get people fired up about not littering!

Yup, we’ve been hitting them up just before they close for the season – except the Tennessee SP which stay open all year, but don’t have many campers right now. The trash thing really bothers me. There is simply no reason for campers or park staff to leave trash laying around!

Beautiful colors – every pic looks like Autumn is wrapped around you. Just looking at the pedal boats makes my legs ache. Used to beg Dad to rent one for us kids, then regret it half way out in the water :-) Hope you find the beauty without the trash as you spend more time in Kentucky.

The autumn colors were exactly what we hoped to see by spending the fall in this area. I would say it has been delivered and then some! Funny about the paddle boats. I’ve only been on one once, but don’t remember it being very much fun. Kayaking is much more my style.

About The Watsons

This is the story of Tim & Amanda. Since 2012, we have traveled the U.S. while living and working from our renovated 25-foot Airstream. Follow us on our crazy journey in search of beautiful scenery, fun adventures, interesting people, tasty foods, and more…